The Urban-Rural Divide in Political Attitudes in the Netherlands

Scholars, pundits, and policy-makers frequently express concern about growing polarization between urban and rural areas, arguing that it could become the dominant conflict line in Western democracies (Rachman 2018; Rodden 2019). Research from the UK and other European countries suggests that the urban-rural divide is especially pronounced when it comes to socio-cultural, or “cosmopolitan-nationalist” issues, like immigration, multiculturalism and, in the European context, EU integration (Jennings and Stoker 2017; Maxwell 2019). This concern has also been voiced in the Dutch media, with several outlets recently reporting on socio-cultural conflicts between densely populated urban and less densely populated rural areas, as well as between the most-urbanized western region, called “Randstad,” and more peripheral regions.

My research examines the development of cosmopolitan-nationalist attitudes in more- and less-urbanized municipalities in the Netherlands over the last decades (Huijsmans et al. 2020). Individuals with cosmopolitan attitudes are open to the world outside their own community and to different cultures, while nationalistic people feel that migrants and transnational institutions threaten the national interests and their way of life (Haller & Roudometof 2010). Is the Netherlands indeed experiencing a growing urban-rural divide centered around socio-cultural issues, and if so, why is this happening? After all, in such a small and densely populated country in which citizens can drive from the capital Amsterdam to the remotest rural areas in less than three hours it seems least likely to see an urban rural-divide in attitudes and behaviors. However, if there is one in the Netherlands, it is likely to exist elsewhere too.